This invention relates to methods for processing freshly harvested vegetables such as lettuce, particularly Iceberg lettuce. The method includes the steps of cutting the core from freshly harvested vegetables such as lettuce and particularly Iceberg and Romaine lettuce, allowing natural juices such as sap or latex to exude from the cored site after cutting, such that substantially all of the natural free-flowing juices at this site exude from the site, then washing the site to remove the exuded matter.
These methods are also applicable, after harvesting, to subdivided, peeled fruit such as apples, grapefruit, oranges, limes, and lemons and vegetables and other produce such as potatoes in the form of french fries, carrots in the form of slices or sticks, celery in the form of slices or sticks, and members of the chicory family e.g. endive, escarole and radicchio.
In preferred embodiments, the methods are applied to fresh vegetables such as lettuce, particularly head lettuce such as Iceberg lettuce or Romaine lettuce. After coring, the lettuce is positioned to allow its natural juices to flow, by gravity or otherwise, from the coring site, and then washed at and around the coring site to remove exuded natural juices and other entrained matter. Preferably, the positioning period is in the range of about fifteen seconds to about sixty minutes.
Methods for processing fresh produce comprise cutting the produce from its growth site, removing the core of the produce, positioning the cored produce to allow its natural juices to exude from the coring site for a time sufficient (e.g. a time period in a range of about 15 seconds to about 60 minutes) to permit substantially all such free-flowing juices at or near the coring site to exude from the site, and washing the cored produce to remove such exuded natural juices from produce surfaces. These methods may also comprise selecting, as the fresh produce, lettuce such as Iceberg lettuce or Romaine lettuce.
The methods for processing freshly harvested fruits and vegetables include cutting such fruits and vegetables from their growth sites, peeling, cutting (or peeling and cutting) the fruits and vegetables, positioning the fruits and vegetables to allow their natural juices to exude substantially completely from the cutting sites, and washing the fruits and vegetables to remove the exuded natural juices. Such fruits and vegetables may be, for example, celery, grapefruit, orange, lemon and lime. In some cases, the fruits and vegetables may be subjected to cutting or slicing before the positioning step, particularly where the produce is, for example, potatoes and carrots.